We won the game, so this is not sour grapes, and the goal which gave St Johnstone the lead was a lesson in defensive failures: Matt O’Riley should have cleared the ball, Joe Hart should have commanded his six yard box, both carry a lot of responsibility for the goal.
However, Matt had to break free from a shirt hold to even get to the ball and the St Johnstone player who won the ball one yard in front of goal did so with his arm, which was fully extended from his body. There is no need to fire off into a ‘They’re all against us’ rant, this may well be true, but it does not matter. What is without doubt is that our refereeing and video assisted refereeing is not good enough.
There is so much shirt pulling in the game that referees and VARs could effectively decide the outcome of any game they choose. Sometimes it is punished, on other occasions it is not. Matt O’Riley was ‘unlucky’ in this respect yesterday.
The handball rule is clearer. Play the ball with your hand or arm when it is extended from your body inside the box, and you can expect VAR to get involved. It is inexplicable that such an event led to the opening goal yesterday.
VAR has not made our game worse, it is not the thing that has enabled one team to benefit, what it has done is turn the spotlight onto something which has been going on for a century. We need VAR because we need its spotlight in order to drive improvement. There was no way referee Don Robertson could be accused of turning a blind eye to yesterday’s handball. He was unsighted and it happened too quick.
The VAR on the other hand? It is just not good enough. The SFA are trolling us if they pretend otherwise. And for the record, I don’t believe the apparent randomness of outcomes is random.
It is a great benefit to know what your opponent will do. Celtic absolutely know what our next several opponents will do at corner kicks. They will put a wide-bodied player on Joe Hart. Unless things change, Greg Taylor will attempt to out-muscle that player and prevent him from inhibiting Joe. Joe will be unable to command his six-yard box. What happens next is anyone’s guess, but the likelihood of a goal being scored is far higher than the paltry 3% industry standard.
Armed with this knowledge, we should never be fragile from a similar situation again.
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Tony Mobray sacked after only 2 wins in 9 league games – Vale manager no wins in 11 still in post.
GENE on 5TH DECEMBER 2023 7:30 AM
Good morning from North Staffs ( don’t know what the weather’s like as haven’t opened the curtains yet)
Big Jimmy – take care
………..
Thanks GENE.
HH Mate.
Good morning all from Govanhill.
Braw.
Raining as I thought 😞
GENE @ 7:35 AM,
Wonder if he fancies a job at Wycombe, would do well here
Hail Hail
Chairbhoy
Maybe we should go for Vale legend and recent Wycombe boss Gareth Ainsworth 🤭
Quick arithmetic test
There are 20 clubs in the EPL
Each play 38 matches
How many games played per season?
380 🤔
gene
Correct! 380
Full marks for the bhoy at the back of the class!
The new EPL (domestic) deal involves showing 270 of those games
How many am I interested in watching?
Answer not many.
Celtic Mac
I did advance calculus at school – didn’t help one bit just my O level arithmetic 🤭
As far as watching the EPL is concerned only watch on Sunday when my lads and son in law visit.
Correct! 380
—
you need to show your working or you wont get full marks!
assuming the teams play each other home and away once then the question boils down to how many different permutations of 2 teams can you get from a league of 20 teams
so it is 20! divided by 18! which equals 20 times 19 which is indeed 380
😁
i should have specified that the 18! bit is derived from (20 – 2)! so thats 1 mark off for me
😡
gene
In terms of numeracy, arithmetic is the most important (and original) branch of mathematics.
We studied arithmetic throughout primary school and then also, also, mathematics at high school. Two separate subjects, two separate examinations, up to ordinary level at least. Which you achieved, important now when you have to count back to the Vale’s last victory. I looked back to the SCE ordinary level exams from the late 1950s, early 60s recently (not the ones I took) and trust me students at University today would struggle to pass them in the time available. It is a pity arithmetic isn’t examined separately these days in Scotland, lot of students lose out as a result. I blame the educationalists.
lets all do the huddle
That is the key! It takes two to tango.
Big Jimmy
Yes the discount is if you already have a subscription to Celtic TV.
Take care that dose sounds like a bad (and sore) one
Celtic Mac
O level arithmetic 1966
Maths ( algebra and geometry etc ) was about method – if you got the answer wrong then you’d still get marks.
Arithmetic was about accuracy and getting the answer right.
When I moved to England I found they didn’t have separate subjects – I argued that this made the O level maths easier because it contained arithmetic questions.
Still believe Scotland had it right – pity they ditched it.
20 x 38 = 760
As there are 2 teams in a game then it’s divided by 2 hence 380
GENE on 5TH DECEMBER 2023 11:08 AM
20 x 38 = 760
As there are 2 teams in a game then it’s divided by 2 hence 380
—————
That’s exactly how I worked it out tbh. 😃👍
Kids nowadays …
Alexa how many games in an English premier season …😜😁
If you asked them to show their working ,they would video themselves on their phone asking Alexa…😜😁😂
I did ask Alexa – the answer
Penalty to rraaannggers
That was vary good 😂😂
new article posted.